We pitched our tent about 10 feet from the edge of the Lake. It was perfect, just too short of a stay. Steve said he hadn't relaxed like this since Lake Malawi. So far as we can tell, this is the twins' first official camping trip. It definitely challenged them in many ways.
Little Miss shows little fear and jumps into new situations with gusto. She took everything in stride. She paddled the canoe, swam a lot, jumped from the canoe, slept in the tent, used the outhouse, and made do with primitive living easily. She handled the late nights and less sleep and never had any problems. She giggled a ton!! Every new experience is exciting and brings on a fit of giggles.
Buster Brown enjoyed himself but freaked out quite a bit. Fear overrides logic in many situations. As evening approached the first day the sun went behind a small cloud and he totally panicked. He wanted us all in the tent NOW! We tried to make light of it and tried many different ways to help him "think" a little. As the shadows lengthened we watched him get more and more uptight and then suddenly he realized how silly he was being and his stress level dropped visibly and he laughed with us.
One time I jumped out of the canoe and Steve decided to jump out too, leaving the twins in the boat about four feet from shore. The the girls and Steve and I were right there swimming within reach of the canoe and he still freaked out so bad he literally jumped overboard in panic. I'm not sure what that accomplished but it was all accompanied by a major amount of drama.
He wet his pants as many times as he needed to go pee. He would go into the outhouse and sit, pretend to go, then come out, lie about it and then pee in his pants. Very frustrating. When we went to bed he would lie in frozen fear, eyes bugged out, right up next to Steve.
He would tell you camping is FUN and he wants to go again.
He also had a few fits of temper. I had a few moments of total discouragement, but the Lord did not leave me there. More on that later.
Steve told the story of Jesus and the storm one night. In the storybook Jesus asks his disciples, "Why were you afraid when I was with you?" Steve worked that point quite a bit and we prayed for help in overcoming fear, etc... A few minutes later Steve picked up the fire grate that was lying open on the ground and he said without thinking, "I'm afraid....." and in typical Steve fashion left the rest of the sentence unsaid. (We joke that he has an Expressive Language Disorder). Buster looked at him in utter astonishment and Brianna went into hysterics. "Dad, you just told him he doesn't have to be afraid. You just told him you are not afraid because God is with you and now you are letting him think you are afraid. You must finish your sentence!!" Yikes. He nearly undid everything he's just worked so hard to do.
"I'm afraid someone is going to trip over this grate if we leave it open like this."
Shew!
Steve and the girls left early to get back to work and class. We stayed and picked up Christina from camp and drove home in our favorite suburban today, - the only one, the one with no air conditioning. I somehow missed the shortcut. The temperature rose to 103 degrees and my lovely 40 gallon gas tank did it's fabulous summertime tricks. When the weather is hot like today and I get low on gas the vehicle stalls. We were in the middle of wheat fields and I figured we were 15 miles from the nearest gas station. We started and stalled a few times, but it was getting really bad when we finally reached the town, however the gas station was clear on the other side. The State Road bends and turns a half dozen times in this funny little town. We stalled at every turn and then coasted all the way down to the station... It's kind of creepy cause the brakes are not so good when I am stalled. Sure enough, I needed gas but it was clear that the tank was NOT empty. (Yes, the gas gauge hasn't worked in a couple of years, but I'm good about watching the miles. It was only at 420 miles and I know I can go to 600 miles.) I'm thinking the gas that was in the tank was all vapor, or causing a vapor lock or something. I drove around on the flat for a few minutes before praying, putting it in low gear and heading down the twisty, curvy, steep canyon. We made it and we never stalled again.
1 comment:
Wow...your stalling experience brought back memories of the summer we took our girls to YD camp. We could not use our air conditioner, or it froze our engine up. We stalled 5 or more times before realizing what was causing it...and then we had to use our towels to keep cool the rest of the 1200+ miles home with no AC. At one point we knew it was 111 degrees out. Every hour or so we would stop at a gas station to hose ourselves down, get the towels wet again, and continue.. That vehicle still runs, but stays closer to home now.:)
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